When the Rain Ends, Hold me Close and Never Let Go
by Illusions of Insanity
Summary: All May wanted to do was feel something again. As she laid there, soaked to her bones and tired, all she could think about is how she ended up being the emotionless, battle-crazed girl she was today. She had always wanted to be something, but once she got it, all she wanted to be was herself again. She wanted to be free again. {AlphaSapphireHeadcanon!}


She had never thought that her skin could feel any wetter.

As the rain above her head dwindled, May closed her eyes. She had finally done it. Kyogre, the great behemoth of the sea had made his appearance and given her the hardest battle of her life. May Sapphire, the girl who had raced around Hoenn in a constant state of battle-lust had finally met her match in the form of a blue monster of the ocean. She had felt her eyes burn and the mark of the Pokémon in front of her itch as she stared him in the eye. She had been yet another chosen one in a never-ending line of human counterparts. She had been chosen from the moment she had seen the ocean itself, swallowed by the blue and cursed to carry out the wishes of Kyogre.

She knew of others like her, branded and destined for greatness. She had once relished in her position, but now all she felt was pain. The endless storm of the Sea Basin Pokémon had raged around her, giving her an unquenchable desire to flood the world with her power. She had traveled far with her Pokémon, becoming one of the best the island region had ever seen. The brunette knew somewhere in her mind that her destiny was greater than just collecting Gym Badges and defeating Champion Steven Stone in battle. Despite her father's wishes, she was going to be more than just his successor. May Sapphire was born for greatness, not her father's shadow.

Still, she never understood why her chosen status was something to be feared. After all, she had never felt more powerful than when she had fallen in that salty water on Route 104 and caught a glimpse of the glowing orange and blues of Primal Kyogre. The vision had left her with an ancient symbol in her right eye, the very symbol on Primal Kyogre's fin. She was now the Alpha, marked for Kyogre's use and waiting for her chance to shine. She had been overjoyed at her fortunes; the very Trainer she had looked up to in Johto was now more similar to her than ever. The brunette was now a chosen one, ready to exact Kyogre's wishes. However, when she had met the Champion of Johto, Lyra Soul, and told her of her destiny, the young woman had clasped her hands over her mouth and let out a choked gasp.

"No," she had whispered. The two of them stood alone as the congregation of Gym Leaders, Champions and Elite Four members seemed to become frozen in place, irrelevant to this one, critical moment in her life. The brunette Champion shook her head sadly before letting a few tears slip out of her eyes and gleam against her ruby dress. "You...you have no idea what the life of a chosen one will mean for you."

"I never would have wished this life on you, May Sapphire. _Never_."

Now, lying against the sopping ground with her eyes closed, she knew why the hazel-eyed Champion had felt such pain over her inheritance. The life of a chosen one was filled with a burning, a strange feeling that never left your chest. You constantly wanted something; you wanted to win more battles, to fight more members of Team Aqua and Magma, to release this horrible burning inside of her mind. She was trapped in a constant state of battle-lust, hungry for the energy and the rush that filled her veins. She wanted more, more, _more_. She was nothing more than a Pokémon trapped within a human body, eager to fight and desperate to achieve a state of peace.

Redemption the Sceptile, Affection the Delcatty, Punishment the Crobat, Order the Gallade, Silvon the Skarmory, Fear the Mightyena and Hatred the Lanturn were more than just her Pokémon. They were her partners in an endless cycle of revenge that was laid out for her to follow by the great Pokémon of the ocean. They were his knights, his samurai and his messengers, blazing the land for the great Pokémon of the water. They were constantly under his reign. There was never rest, never an end. She could only feel slight differences in her thirst for battle, never anything solid. They knew her affliction and yet chose to help her instead of running away as others had. They were her partners, her tether to any sort of normalcy. She had lost her humanity now. All that was left was a ghost of May Sapphire, someone who had fell in the ocean and drowned in the power of the beast.

Her blue eyes were still stinging as the constant pressure of falling rain slowly faded, leaving her weightless against the wet grass. She had calmed the Sea Basin Pokémon, but she still felt his rage and desire for battle within her heart. Perhaps this was the curse Lyra Soul had told her about, that those chosen would never feel satisfied. She felt like crying at the thought of being trapped within this feeling for the rest of her life. Why had she ever been happy for such a thing? She was now a victim of an endless rage. There was no going back from this.

"May!" A small voice echoed in her mind as she felt like she was drifting away. Someone was running to her; she could hear the grass smashing in the puddles and spreading their water around the person. Whoever it was, she could not tell. Her head felt like it was miles away from here. May didn't feel like she was there. Instead, the brunette felt like she was flying away. "May, hang on!"

The voice, although panicked, was gentle. She knew right then that it was not Brendan Ruby calling for her. That boy had never shown such emotions to her. Granted, she never wanted him to. She felt so suffocated by the people around her after her incident with Kyogre. The blue-eyed Trainer never felt joy in the company of another Trainer. Instead, she found herself tearing them apart, analyzing everything about them. It was a strange thing, but she couldn't help it. She guessed that it must be from her connection to Kyogre, though, just as everything else was. That only left one other person who she had repeatedly met along the way, who had tried desperately to keep up with her.

Wally.

She felt his touch before she could open her eyes. His hands were shaking as he struggled to lift her off the ground, grabbing her wet shoulders and tugging at her soaked clothes until she was held above the cold ground. Her eyes, sharp and pained, fluttered open to find a familiar pale face and green eyes staring back at her, tears falling as a relieved smile graced his face. She wished she could feel _something_ when she looked at him, but she could feel that familiar burn in her chest that prevented anything but the emotions brought out in battle.

"May!" Wally Emerald, the boy who had asked to be her rival, clutched her tightly and was laughing out in between sobs. His face seemed so overjoyed, but his body was still shaking with tears. "Y-You're alright! I-I was so scared when you went to face Kyogre that I-I—" Suddenly, he was crying again, ugly sobs that tore into his words and showered the girl in his arms with tears. May could plainly see that for some reason or another, he was happy to see her again. The mere thought of it was strange to her. She wished she could feel happy to see him as well, to smile at him as he was. However, she still felt cold.

It just wasn't fair.

She _wanted_ to be happy to see him. She wanted to smile at him and thank him for finding her here on the edge of Sootopolis's banks. She wanted more than anything to feel as he was, free of this emotionless thread. Instead, she pulled away from his grasp and tried to sit up on her own. Her clothes let out a strange gush of water as she shivered in place, her red top not the best in holding in the warmth that was escaping her skin. She glanced at her hands and found them to be perfectly fine, lacking any wrinkles caused by the water. She somehow managed to let out a sigh of disappointment at the find. She was still as immune to water as ever, despite how it chilled her skin and drenched her clothes.

Her blue orbs switched back to find Wally smiling at her again, his Gallade standing tall beside him. To her surprise, they were alone on this bank. She had selfishly thought that the moment Kyogre let out his mighty roar, people would have started searching for her. It was one of the few feelings she had been blessed with lately, and it hurt that she was proven wrong. Well, it would have hurt if she was able to feel it.

"I'm so relieved that you're in one piece!" Wally was talking again, his voice now a bit more steady. His white sleeves lifted to his cheeks and quickly wiped away the tears that had not yet fallen. His green hair seemed to be ruffled by a short burst of wind, the air still smelling like the saltwater rain that had been falling for over a month. "When you went in there, I couldn't help but worry..." His voice trailed off as he suddenly realized something. His thin frame jumped in his seat as he suddenly started waving his hands in front of him with vibrant cheeks, embarrassed about something. "I-I mean, _everyone_ was worried about you! I-It's not like I was getting worked up over you heading in the Cave of Origin! I-I'm not that weak anymore, honest!" He then abruptly laughed it off, acting as if it erased his earlier behavior.

"...You...were worried about me?" The words were still cold as they left May's lips. She couldn't even feel surprised by it anymore. Instead, she tried to feel regret over it. It didn't work. She shoved the want to feel disappointed aside and instead focused on the emotional boy in front of her. "You...actually worried about me when I left?"

Wally's eyes grew wide for a moment before they returned to the gentle width they always were. "Yeah," he breathed. Somewhere in the back of her mind, May wondered if he might have overworked himself to come see her in this rain-soaked world he had been forced to avoid. "I mean, of course I was." His smile was still there, kind and reassuring. "You were so brave going in there with only your Pokémon! Facing off against a Legendary Pokémon...it would be _way_ too much for me!" He gave her an awkward laugh as his guardian just nodded alongside him.

"But," Wally continued, "Everything's going to be alright now." The boy looked up to the sky and May found herself looking up with him. Her arm raced to shield her eyes as she found a blue sky shining above their heads, the sun resting at the top of his throne once again. The brunette looked back down to her rival to find him smiling with his hands in his lap, an absent look about him. "The rain has finally stopped. You're free now, May."

"What?" The word left her mouth before she could stop it. The green-haired boy beside her tilted her head in a moment of confusion as she felt her hands shake. Free? The mere idea was suddenly bursting with emotions, filled with opportunities. She wanted more than anything to be free of this world of fighting. She wanted to feel something again, something other than rage or excitement. She wanted happiness. She wanted sadness. She wanted disappointment. She wanted achievement.

And maybe, just maybe, she wanted to feel love again.

"You're free." Wally repeated his words, unaware of the prized position it held within his rival's mind. "You don't have to fight Team Aqua or Magma anymore. You don't have to fight every second to become strong enough for the next battle. You don't have to face Kyogre anymore." He lifted his head without a smile, his face still kind but a bit questioning at the same time. Instantly, the tight grip on her heart faltered. May felt herself shake as he finished his words. "You're free to just be you, May."

Abruptly, a tear slipped down her cheek.

Wally looked on in shock as the brunette let out a sob for the first time in three years. Her shoulders heaved as her head tilted down to her chest, her chin resting against her collarbone. Her lip quivered as her eyes stung and shed thousands of gleaming gemstones. May lifted her hands as suddenly her chest felt like it was going to burst. Emotions swirled inside her as if they were being freed from a cage. Joy, relief and pride danced in her heart as she felt her tears slip down to the salty water below her knees and mix with the thing that had cursed her to this life of emotionless existence.

"I-I'm...free?" The words seemed to contain a new weight as she whispered to the air. The Gallade at Wally's side let his eyes grow wide as he suddenly recognized what was going on. Pokémon like him knew all along her affliction, and even now them seemed to be one of the first to know. The Blade Pokémon let out a happy chirp as he saw her fianlly shake with an emotion other than anger. "I-I'm...finally...free."

Before she could stop herself, May was flinging her arms around Wally's shoulders and laughing in her tears, overjoyed at the rising in her chest. "I-I'm free! Oh, I'm finally free!" She finally felt something again! Kyogre's grip had weakened on her poor soul, freeing her heart. She could finally breathe again. The scent of saltwater faded away as the sweet smell of grass took over, the clouds of wrath finally dispersing. She was free.

She was _free_!

She was so excited over this change that she didn't even notice the slight weight on her shoulderblades. Wally smiled on through the smell of both freshwater and saltwater. He didn't exactly know what had come over May Sapphire. One moment, she is as closed-off as she's always been towards him. The next instant there's vibrant ribbons of tears down her cheeks and she _laughing_ , laughing out loud for the first time since they met. She's suddenly the same girl he met in Petalburg, the same one who helped him meet his beloved Gallade.

The two were lost in their moment of bliss, even as others started to cause a racket. The Champion led the way to the abandoned bank as those who had watched May enter the lair of the beast rushed over, shouting out words that were lost to the ocean and laughing out with their own joys. May simply laughed on, even as her tears shook her frame and seemed to make breathing impossible. She was finally free of the emotionless prison. The tight clench of her heart was fading, leaving only a slight twist behind. The golden mark in her sapphire eyes gleamed through her tears as she smiled on, feeling every bit of emotion that had escaped her reach.

It seemed that when the rains stopped, the drowning girl was finally brought to shore.

The Alpha was finally _free_.

* * *

 _Author's Note: This is the result of a prompt on my Tumblr from Nighttyger! The prompt was "Things you said when it was over". I have a feeling that I twisted the meaning of it just to fit this, but I feel it makes things a bit interesting. There's many ways to interpret a sentence, right? I just chose another way._

 _So, AlphaSapphireHeadcanon! is a great mess of angst. Also, I named all of the characters after the original games. I started Pokémon with the Gen III remakes of Gen I, then I played Sapphire and Emerald. So yeah, I'm gonna give the games that started it all a great big shoutout._

 _Also does anyone else remember when Wally had a male Gardevior? Yeah, those were good times... /laughs quietly/_


End file.
